Multilanguage fields don't show value for default language

[tobaco]

Short description of the issue

When using multilanguage fields and a multilanguage backend (users can select the preferred language for editing), the fields don't display the value of the default language and instead show always the other language. If I switch my profile to the default language, everything works as expected.
See the screencast for a better understanding.

Expected behavior

The fields should display the correct value for the language.

Actual behavior

The fields always display the same values for all languages.

Screencast that demonstrate the issue

https://cl.ly/0E261s0L0d0k

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Set up a multilanguage installation
2. Switch language in user profile

Setup/Environment

• ProcessWire version: 3.0.110
• PHP version: 7.1
• MySQL version: 5.6.38
• 3rd party modules:
  AdminOnSteroids
  CronjobDatabaseBackup
  FieldtypeAssistedURL
  FieldtypeEmailLanguage
  FieldtypeFieldsetGroup
  FieldtypeFunctional
  FieldtypeImageMarker
  FieldtypeRepeaterMatrix
  FieldtypeTextareas
  FieldtypeURLLanguage
  GeneralSettings
  ImageFileDependencies
  ImportExternalImages
  InputfieldAssistedURL
  InputfieldFunctional
  InputfieldImageMarker
  InputfieldRepeaterMatrix
  InputfieldSelectize
  InputfieldSelectizeMultiple
  InputfieldTextareas
  JqueryDataTables
  JquerySelectize
  MarkupMenuBuilder
  MarkupSEO
  MarkupSitemapXML
  ModuleReleaseNotes
  ModuleSettingsImportExport
  ModulesManager
  PageCleanEmptyDirs
  ProcessAdminActions
  ProcessDatabaseBackups
  ProcessGeneralSettings
  ProcessMenuBuilder
  ProcessSetupPageName
  ProcessWireUpgrade
  ProcessWireUpgradeCheck
  SchedulePages
  TextformatterSrcset
  TextformatterSuperSmartypants

[ryancramerdesign]

@tobaco I can't duplicate that issue here. You've got a lot of 3rd party modules installed, and I'm wondering if one of them might be interfering somehow. Because there are a lot, rather than uninstalling them, it might be simpler to test from a default multi-language install as included with PW. Also, since the switching is handled by JS, another possibility is that there is some JS error—do you see anything in your JS console?

[adrianbj]

rather than uninstalling them

Don't forget that Tracy has a Module Disabler panel that makes this really easy for testing possible module conflicts. Definitely a good first step to try this.

[tobaco]

@ryancramerdesign

I tried to disable/delete all the 3rd party modules but got no other result.
If I switch my user profile language to German the value for the default language is also german. If I switch to Chinese, the value for default is Chinese.

user language = en (default)

user language = de

user language = cn

This is also unrelated to JavaScript errors or similar since the values are also visible in the raw HTML code.

Could there be something wrong with a relation in the database? Apart from that and this error (https://processwire.com/talk/topic/19927-default-language-is-empty-when-copying-page/ could be related), all is working as expected.

Thanks!

[tobaco]

@ryancramerdesign

I don't know if this is useful for narrowing down the problem, but I tried to debug this issue with Tracy and found out, that the unformatted value of a field is always blank in the default language:

user language = en

user language = de

Is this the right behaviour?

Thanks!

[ryancramerdesign]

The value of "default" definitely shouldn't be blank, as your first screenshot shows it populated with "About Us", so that's what should also appear elsewhere. So it must be getting lost somewhere, but that's a mystery so far. I did just try to duplicate here again, but still not seeing it. Since other modules are now uninstalled, I'm wondering if you can check if you've got any hooks present in /site/ready.php, /site/init.php or /site/templates/admin.php ? Also, might be worth trying to duplicate from the default multi-language profile just as a test, which would tell us if it might be something site specific.

[szabeszg]

I have a site with a very similar issue, except that in my case it does not matter what language is set in the user profile, the tabs do not work at all. "Languages Support - Tabs" is unable to switch to the default languge so I had to disable it and that way I can populate both inputs.

Note that my default language is not English but "Magyar" as seen in the screenshot:

I cannot see any JS errors in the Console and it does not matter which admin theme I use.

@ryancramerdesign if it helps, I can send you the whole site zipped up. It is an almost empty site (regarding content data) as I have just started working on it.

[szabeszg]

I have just bumped into this forum topic:
https://processwire.com/talk/topic/20165-language-tabs-messy-after-upgrade/

...changing the order of the language pages in Admin > Setup > Languages caused the problem... As soon as I moved the default language (english) back to the first position, the tabs looked ok again.

I also changed the order and the tabs do work again. Note that in my case the layout did not change and looked perfectly ok, it was only the click event which did not result in switching the tabs. It is PW 3.0.126 BTW.

Another thing to note that I do not remember changing the order before. I think in my case I got the reversed order because of the way I initially setup the languages, I am not sure though as I did it months ago.

[ryancramerdesign]

@szabeszg Just to confirm, you've determined that the issue only appears if you change the order of the languages so that the default language is not first? It's true that the default language is supposed to be first (since it is the default), but I didn't realize it was required. I can look into see if I can change the need for that, but just wanted to double check that I was understanding right first?

[szabeszg]

Just to confirm, you've determined that the issue only appears if you change the order of the languages so that the default language is not first?

Yes, this is what I was experiencing (note that I did no do extensive testing whatsoever).

I can look into see if I can change the need for that

Thank you! If it cannot be done, as a last resort preventing the order change with additional message if someone tries to do it could also be an option, I guess.